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Making the Connection

From a primarily urban perspective, the author illustrates that the fields of transportation, environment (with an emphasis on climate change) and security (for both natural hazards and terrorism) and their interconnections remain robust areas for policy and planning. Synthesizing existing data, new analyses, and a rich set of case studies, the book uses transportation networks as a framework to explore transportation in conjunction with environment, security, and interdependencies with other infrastructure sectors. The US rail transit system, ecological corridors, cyber security, planning mechanisms and the effectiveness of technologies are among the topics explored in detail. Case studies of severe and potential impacts of natural hazards, accidents, and security breaches on transportation are presented. These cases support the analyses of the forces on transportation, land use and patterns of population change that connect, disconnect and reconnect people from their environment and security.

Chapter 8: Conclusions

Monograph Chapter

Extract

8. Conclusions The opportunity to rethink multiple objectives for transport, the environment, and security that are extensively networked builds on a very long history in each of these areas. Combining them in ways that achieve synergy or at least acknowledge and reconcile conflict is imperative. The trajectory of the deterioration of environmental conditions so eloquently put forth by Speth (2008) signals a collision between transport and the environment, even though in some areas the environment may be showing some improvement. These environmental conditions are coupled with growing challenges to security. Cities are becoming battlefields. As Savitch (2008) notes, most attacks occur in cities. Yet cities small and large remain always vibrant, given the ability to move within and among them. Thus, transport and the many services it represents help to weave a rich fabric that enables those who inhabit cities to retain their mobility and access in the context of the environment and security. Transport has an intricate relationship with environment and security. These three systems share key nodes and have links in common that when disrupted can have catastrophic effects. When such catastrophes occur, the individual systems are not only affected but also the connections among them, given how impacts are often transferred among them as the previous chapters have shown. In times of emergencies, compromises have been made, such as the ability to consume less and reorient behavior in ways that are not only less demanding on the environment but also provide security against a compromised resource. Behavior...

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